Lake City girls go from fourth to state

Two weeks ago, the Lake City Timberwolves girls soccer team was looking up from fourth place in the 5A Inland Empire League standings.

What a difference a couple weeks make.

Lake City enters this week's state girls tournament as the Region 1 champion, winning five of its last six matches.

"It's been a great team effort the past two weeks," Lake City coach Matt Ruchti said. "To go from fourth to first is a testiment to our kids for believing in the coaching staff and each other."

All state tournaments start Thursday. The 5A tournaments will be held at the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex, the 3A tournaments at the Sunway Soccer Complex in Twin Falls.

The 4A tournament will take place in North Idaho, with the boys playing at Lake City High and the girls at Post Falls High. Bonneville was last runner-up in the boys tournament to Sandpoint, which did not qualify this year. Sandpoint's girls return to defend their title.

Championship games will be played on Saturday.

Coeur d'Alene: Coeur d'Alene (12-3-2) enters this week's 5A tournament as the top seed from Region 1 and faces defending champion Centennial (11-3-3) in its opening round match Thursday.

Coeur d'Alene defeated Lake City 2-1 on Saturday to win the regional championship under first-year head coach Jeff Lake, who replaced Eric Louis following last season. The Vikings are competing in their fifth straight state tournament and seventh in the past eight years.

“When I came here, I wanted to change the atmosphere around the team,” Lake said. “Eric and I are good friends, but I wanted to have my own stamp on the program. I feel like we’re a team, all 11 of us are working together as one.”

Coeur d’Alene went two and out last season at state. Centennial beat Coeur d’Alene in the first round last year.

“We’re truly playing as a team this season, distributing as a team and defending as a team,” Lake said. “Our first goal was to be the top seed in regionals. Now we’re just looking to accomplish our other goals.”

Lake City: The Timberwolves (9-4-3) qualified as the second seed from Region 1 by defeating Post Falls last Tuesday at Post Falls.

“There’s no other time we’ll see three games in three days,” Lake City coach Chad Beadell said. “We’re real young, so hopefully we’ll be up for the challenge.”

The Timberwolves face Timberline (10-4-3) on Thursday.

Lake City went 0-2 in its last state appearance in 2007.

Lake City: The Timberwolves enter the 5A girls tournament as the top seed from Region 1 after defeating Inland Empire League champion Lewiston 2-1 in the regional championship game in Lewiston.

“It’s always tough coming from the North,” Ruchti said. “It’s tough to win games down there, but we were fortunate to win two of three games last year. We’ve got a bit more drive than last year, so hopefully we’ll be able to show them that we are pretty good up here also. Hopefully, we’ll be able to sneak up on some teams down there.”

Lake City (8-6-3) faces Mountain View (12-3-2) of Meridian, also at the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex, on Thursday. Mountain View finished third last year. Runner-up Rocky Mountain (14-3-2) of Meridian also returns and faces Centennial (13-2-2) on Thursday.

Lewiston (9-2-6) faces defending champion Boise (14-3-0) in its opener Thursday.

“It was a lot of fun last year,” senior Tori Cozad said. “We really deserve this as a team and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Lake City defeated Coeur d’Alene in last year’s consolation championship game 1-0 to finish fourth.

“All those teams will be really good,” sophomore goalkeeper Brittany Amburn said. “No matter who we play, we’ll face a good team.”

Timberlake: The Tigers defeated Kellogg 3-1 in the 3A District 1-2 championship match Thursday to qualify for its first-ever state appearance.

Timberlake (10-3-3) faces Teton (13-3-1) in its opening match Thursday.

“The girls deserve this one,” Timberlake coach Steve Michaels said. “We’re not done yet. For a first time, this is a nice, new feeling.”

Defending champion Payette returns after defeating District 1-2 runner up Kellogg 2-1 last week in a state play-in game in Lewiston.